Because of the way things are done in our clime, I am afraid that we may never find out the true cause of the Olusosun dumpsite fire, which occurred in Lagos State last week.
But we must not rule out arson. In a country as developed as the United States, for instance, a large percentage of dumpsite and landfill fires are attributed to arson. According to data from the US National Fire Incident Reporting System, more than 40 percent of fires with ignition factors are incendiary or suspicious in nature, and another 20 percent are caused by lit or smoldering materials that were discarded. Spontaneous heating makes up about 5 percent of the reported landfill fires.
Generally speaking, landfill fire is not a novelty. Thousands of them occur each year, and can range from minor surface fires to massive blazes that can release harmful emissions. It can begin for a variety of reasons, but the more obvious causes usually relate to surface fires and include arson, deposits of hot wastes (like biomass ember), and natural causes such as lightening and spontaneous ignition as a result of decomposition process.
I am sure that we have been used to minor surface fires, until last week, when the Olusosun dumpsite was engulfed in that colossal blaze with smoke and pollutants that still pose a threat to the entire Lagos environment.
When landfill fires occur in such a large scale as is presently witnessed, harmful emissions can result, including formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen oxides, among others. Particulate matter in the smoke created during landfill fires can also exacerbate respiratory and other health complications in those living in the immediate environment, and those responding to the fire. Obviously, this is why the Lagos State government has ordered the residents of Olasosun to relocate.
But beyond relocating to safer parts of the state, there are a few troubling concerns that need to be examined in the light of the environmental disaster that the Olasosun fire is; one of them being the fire incident itself. In this part of the world where superstition reigns supreme, there are a few people that would ask the question, is the dumpsite fire a jinx? Or is it a sign from God?
These questions are the more relevant to some superstitious people when one tries to explain the fire incident as having been caused by spontaneous combustion. The hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of scavengers and dumpsite-ghetto dwellers whose lives revolve around the waste disposal-related activities at Olusosun may not understand why the tragedy never happened till now. So, they may see the fire as a sign to abandon their way of life, or otherwise.
Interestingly, this also mirrors the status of our governance infrastructure, and the psychology of our political class. Most times, the government is so un-proactivein tackling structural necessities that it seems as though it is always waiting for a sign to carry out project upgrades.
Olusosun dumpsite, receiving about 9,000 tonnes of waste every day, is the largest in Africa, and one of the largest in the world, but when last did the government carry out an upgrade to make it ready for a dumpsite eventuality? Or to bring it up to par to international best practices?
In the 1990s, the dumpsite was located on the outskirts of the densely populated Lagos metropolis, but due to population explosion accompanied by urban housing expansion, the site later found itself sitting amidst the commercial and residential enclaves of Ojota, Alausa, Oregun and Ikosi.
In those years, one is not sure whether the government instituted improved methods of landfill management at Olusosun. For example, factoringthe most possible cause of spontaneous combustion, the government would have introduced methane gas detection and collection methods, to ensure that gas collection systems are not overdrawn and that collected gas is either flared or converted in energy.
To be sure, there were general political chitchats about introducing waste to energy methods in Lagos a few years ago — and I assumed it would start from Olusosun — but that also ended up as empty talk.
As it turned out eventually, a private company took over the management of the Olusosun dumpsite some months ago. And now that the fire disaster has happened, the company’s managers and their government allies would probably regale Lagosians with “new innovative methods” they have come up with in rebuilding Olusosun to “global standards”.They would probably craft new schemes of making money from Lagos waste, instituting new sanitation governance,building new waste-to-wealth platforms, employing fresh graduates, and so on and so forth.
But the tragedy is that nobody would tell us about the whereabouts of the thousands of Lagosians that have been told to relocate to other safer environments. And indeed, the sad reality is that there are many among them who are so poor that they actually cannot afford to relocate. In fact, some would prefer a temporal but deadly inhalation of the pollutants in the atmosphere to a spell of homelessness in uncharted waters of urban destitution.
The Olusosun dumpsite has been in existence for decades now, and a shanty town has sprung from it, feeding thousands of citizens, giving them shelter, and offering them the only hope they have in a country that seems never to care what happens to its poor citizens.Where would these dumpsite-shanty town dwellers go to?
Let us not forget that there is an ongoing conflict between the Lagos State government and private sector participants in environmental sanitation in Lagos, who are not happy with the manner the present Lagos State administration has sidelined it in the implementation of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative policy. In addition, we must not be blind to the possibility that the present and future status of the Olusosun dumpsite is tied to the ongoing imbroglio.
This is why it is important that Governor Akinwumni Ambodedoes all in his power to resolve the conflict between these veteran private environmental sanitation operators and the new investors. My stand has always being that the business model is the best approach to environmental development. But I also maintain that the model should be in the mold of social enterprise. This means in essence that service to humanity and the community is given prior consideration than profit making.
Lagos State has already experienced massive development in the environmental sector, with the private sector playing an active role. New world-acclaimed waste-to-wealth enterprises have sprang up from these initiatives. Young entrepreneurs have been made. The general public also became very conscious of environmental matters in this way. Therefore there is no need to totally dismantle the structure from top to bottom without a conscious and intensive effort to reconcile the old with the new.
There could be no worse treacherous tragedy facing the Lagos, and indeed the Nigerian environmental development than loss of faith. Green consciousness and lifestyle is about public buy-in. I believe that there was a gradual process of citizen buy-in unfolding in Lagos. The success of LAWMA is a testimony to this. Nigeria was gaining global visibility in the environmental sector because of the unfolding all-inclusive industry in Lagos which had a promise of unveiling a made-in-Nigeria grassroots driven green industry.
My fear now, however, is that without adequate effort for a broad-based remedy, the Olusosun fire may become the mental blowtorch to dissolve all the progress made so far.
Punch
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